Hobby Ideas for Pinterest Boards

As time thins out, Pinterest is a creative way to stretch the spirit

A friend was talking about her Pinterest boards recently, and how she'd added a new board for "hobbies." She laughed because it's Pinterest that's her latest hobby, so it was like a hobby within a hobby. (Pinterest.com is a social media website that lets you build virtual collages from beautiful images you digitally "pin" on your own boards.)

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"I don't even know what I'd put down for hobbies anymore," I said, not meaning it to sound as plaintive as it did.

"Well, of course," she said, making a sweeping gesture that I understood to take in my kids, even though they weren't with us. "Because you have five of them now."

I went away thinking about the things I used to enjoy that, once our youngest was born and time was more limited, hadn't made the cut. What would I put on the boards?

It became a statement of values, a mental shorthand for something philosophically larger: What makes the board.

I decided to use Pinterest as an exercise in soul-searching. I went to the site and created three boards: Have Been, Am, and Becoming. And I posted (or "pinned") images that reflected each phase of my life.

On Am, there was yoga, writing, baking cookies, looking after a kitten litter, patent leather Dansko clogs, and the Von Trapps — well, minus the singing, the wealth, and the nanny.

On Becoming, I imagined — yes — golf, and more yoga, writing, and travel. I want to take inn-to-inn trips abroad, by bike or horseback. Also there is the dream of someday working for Smile Train, an international organization aiding children with cleft palates. And baby alpacas: I want to have a small farm and breed alpacas. But the centerpiece is an arresting portrait of a gorgeous old woman: She wears an evening gown, smiling happily with her eyes closed and her elegant arms outstretched like she is embracing the all of herself.

I made my boards, like planting a flag on the moon. And I learned something: I may well have winnowed my life down to just a few things right now, but there are still shadows of all that has been the essence of me.

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And if I'm fortunate enough to live to be 80, I hope to sit at peace with my arms open wide, grateful that the best of my energy and intentions lasted to make it to the Becoming, and bring them all into my bony embrace.

Nichole Bernier lives near Boston with her family. She's the author of The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D. and is at work on her second book.

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